Ethics commission clears Lauderdale Lakes vice mayor

The Florida Ethics Commission has found no evidence Lauderdale Lakes Vice Mayor Patricia Hawkins-Williams took a kickback from the sale of football and cheerleading T-shirts purchased with city money.

The commission, in a decision released Wednesday, found no probable cause of any wrongdoing by the vice mayor.

Hawkins-Williams had used $1,660 from her discretionary city account to purchase shirts in 2009 for the Lauderdale Lakes Vikings youth football and cheerleading programs to use as a fundraiser.

Community activist Gwen Denton filed a complaint with the ethics commission this year after learning that Hawkins-Williams had been reimbursed some of the money from the sale of the shirts. Denton found no record of the money being returned to the city.

Lauderdale Lakes Sports Club President Lee Austin told investigators he had given Hawkins-Williams $500 in 2009 and $250 in 2010 from the sale of the shirts.

Hawkins-Williams said she gave the money to then-City Manager Anita Fain-Taylor to deposit into her commission account, which Fain-Taylor corroborated, investigators said.

The returned money did not show up in records the Sun Sentinel obtained from the city in May. But Finance Director Marie Elianor told Ethics Commission investigators that a $1,000 cash deposit was placed into Hawkins-Williams account on Sept. 8, 2009.

Elianor said Wednesday "there was additional documentation found that reflected [an] additional deposit in the commissioner's account." A cash deposit slip for $1,000 was dated the same day as the deposit of a $1,000 check from Waste Management into Hawkins-Williams' account for "football sponsorship."

City records show that the two items may have been confused as the same deposit.

Hawkins-Williams said she knew she did not do anything wrong.

"I knew it was going to come out this way. It's sad you have to go through something like this," Hawkins-Williams said. "Why would I take from a program that I have always supported?"